From LFM's notes: Ken (Jira) was born on a farm in Benton County near what was known as Watab. They moved to Rice, Minnesota where his father ran a hotel. It was here that he became interested in railroading. learned telegraphy, and became a station agent serving in various stations on the Northern Pacific RR. In 1898 he and 3 or 4 others went to the Klondike in Alaska during the goldrush. They were not successful in finding very much gold.

He and Lottie lived at Royalton, Minnesota where he was a station agent. They moved to Little Falls about 1902. He started as a bookeeper at the First National Bank and was president when he retired in 1934. [2]

Lycurgus and Flora were married in Clarks Mills by Thomas B. Dooley, who was the pastor at St. James Episcopal Church in Manitowoc. Dooley did not register the marriage until 5 March 1869, 17 months after the event. By that time he did not remember Lycurgus' and Flora's first names. He also gave the bride's mother's name as Mary (a sister) rather than Hannah. He did name the witness as Angeline Knapp, one of Flora's sisters. Angeline was married about a month after Flora, and Dooley also recorded her mother's name as Mary rather than Hannah.

Dooley registered 17 other marriages the same day. The earliest was performed 13 Dec 1866, almost two years and four months before he registered it. He did not record the marriage date for one of them.

Dooley came to Manitowoc from Michigan about 1865 and returned to Michigan in 1870. He is identified as F. B Dooley in "A History of Manitowoc County" by Ralph G. Plumb.

Pheasant Hunt near Ortonville, Minnesota, abt 1932.Left to right: J.K. Martin, Barney Burton, Neil Woodworth, Steve Simonet, Leonard Simonet, L.F. Martin, Cap't. Bordeleau, Col. Rossberg. L.F.M. said that this take was truly exceptional. No one in the group had ever seen as many birds as they did that day.

Klondike Gold Rush -- Boats and CampOn 31 May 1898 J.K. Martin described the difficult trip though the rapids at the end of Lindeman Lake:
" Monday morning we loaded our boats and arrived at the canyon at noon, and hired our outfit, all but a ton, hauled, (Those are the boys that make the money – ten dollars a ton for 3\4-mile haul and just all they can do) which we were going to have put through in the boats, as the pilot said he would line them through if we would put a thousand pounds in each boat so that it would pay him to take time, and we thought it would be best to do that and not take chances on smashing on [sic] boat by shooting the rapids, but the “bugger” came around this morning and said he could shoot the rapids all right with it and asked me to go down with him and help hold it off the rocks, and show him where our goods were, so as to land.

Well, we made the start alright, but only got about two-thirds of the way through when we run the bow smash into the solid rock bank, which set us spinning , and we brought up a little further down on some rock, knocking the back corner out of it, and we had a great hustle to get out goods ashore. The boat sank right down and wet the goods in great shape, but luckily the water was only up to our hips, so we were able by the aid of a line to wade and carry our goods ashore. That happened at 6'clock this morning, and our boat is still there, badly wrecked, and it is now 8 p.m., but we expect to raise it yet this evening or early tomorrow morning. It’s most too dangerous a place to work in while the boats are shooting by. "
Their second boat made it through undamaged. Soon after JKM wrote that he lost his Kodak.

Klondike Gold Rush -- Digging for avalanche victimsOn 3 Apr 1898 J.K. Martin wrote to his family "This has been an exciting day and a sad one to many. The snow slides have been the worst this country ever knew. You have, undoubtedly, seen the reports in the papers. There is no telling how many people are buried under the snow. They have dug out about thirty so far and over half of them are dead. I saw fifteen dead bodies today and they are still digging. I expect the newspapers will have everyone buried alive. We were on the point of telegraphing you through Mr. Olds at Seattle, for fear you would see the reports in the papers and worry about us.
I took two Kodak shots at the scenes as the men were at the rescue work."

Klondike Gold Rush -- Miners Climbing the Chilkoot PassOn 21 Mar 1898 J. K. Martin wrote "We are getting along nicely and have all our goods about one-third the way up the summit now and if we have good weather three more days will put us on top. A person has to be awful careful, as the mountain is so steep if a person falls down he will roll or slide to the bottom, unless he can catch a rope to stop; but it does not hurt a person. We wear iron creepers with long flat calks on them to keep from slipping down, so as long as you can keep your feet you are all right. I let my sled get away from me on St. Patrick`s Day with 350 pounds on it, and it flew back down the mountain at the rate of a mile a minute for 5009 feet and ran into another sled, smashed it and scattered goods all over. The deal cost me $8.50, besides breaking my own sled.

The mountains are so steep a person can hardly ascend them and we use block and tackle and station two men at each end of the line to load and unload and we catch the packers coming down to ride one sled down, which brings the loaded one up. Four men riding a sled down will bring up about 250 or 300 pounds and they are always glad to get a ride down. "

Klondike Gold Rush -- Free Miner's CertificateA one-year permit from the Dominion of Canada allowing J. K. Martin the privileges of a free miner and the right to fish, to shoot game and to cut timber for actual necessities. Fee: $10.00.

Klondike Gold Rush -- Table of DistancesTravel advice and a table of distances between points along three routes to Dawson City, the center of the gold fields, published by the Klondike Nugget. According to the table the total distance from Dyea, Alaska to Dawson City, North West Territory was 617 miles.

Martin, J.K., Letters from the Klondike gold rush, part 1.In 1898 J.K. Martin and several companions joined the gold rush to the Klondike. Parts of five of his letters home were published as articles in the Little Falls Daily Transcript.
Letters 1 & 2 are presented here. Transcribed by Sandra B. Martin without change except for typographical errors. Click here to download a pdf of parts 1 & 2.